home again!

It's great to be home again, last week wrapped up my travel for the summer. I had a wonderful time in San Francisco. We ate dinner on the pier 39, which overlooks Alcatraz island. I missed taking a tour this trip but I hope to go back soon. Thursday night we were able to see the Frida Kahlo exhibit at the SF MOMA. It was amazing to be able to see it in person! It was a lot of fun but I couldn't wait to get home to see my boys.

Here's a quick card I did for the glitter challenge over at the AP blog, it's also going to double as a birthday card for a friend tomorrow. I showed my mom, husband, and my sister the card and none of them got it. Basically any mariachi in town sings, the happy birthday song by repeating 'to you' a few times. Once they thought about it they got it, hopefully I won't have to explain it too much. Also I'm not much of a flower girl but I messed up and they were the best thing to hide my mistakes.

Stamps & Paper: A muse. Ink: Momento, Prismacolor & Stickles.

A muse Stamps for Sale

So I came home from my trip this week with an additional 30 A muse stamps, so it's time for a little house cleaning. Most of the stamps are brand new, never seeing ink in their lives. A few have ink stains on the wood but that has no effect on the stamped image. All rubber is intact! Please email me if you are interested in buying any of these, they will go to the person that emails and pays through paypal first.

Here is the shipping info to the continental U.S. ONLY, sorry no international orders!

1-2 stamps - $2.00
3-5 stamps - $3.00
6-10 stamps - $5.50
10+ stamps - will send invoice thru paypal

A Muse stamps for Sale

bbq

This was a quick little card for the AP challenge this past weekend. The background paper reminded of the 4th of july so I went with the BBQ theme. I didn't originally want glitter on the pit but I used it to cover up a mistake I made. I had initially colored it blue but it didn’t really stand out. So I colored it red, of course it turns purple! Stickles to the rescue, it covered my mistake perfectly.

Shopping...

I made this card for a challenge over @ 2Peas, I've been wanting to play with this stamp for a while but I could not get it to work for me. I finally gave up and drew in the spots that would not stamp clearly.

Today I was lucky enough to visit the Paper Garden Boutique in Sacramento, CA. My local stamp store has a really small selection of stamps so I was completely blown away by the inventory at Paper Garden. It was truly a stampers dream, I picked up quite a few stamps on my wish list, paper and a couple of Copics. I can't wait to get home and play with my new goodies!!!

Stamps: A muse, Rubber Romance. Paper: Paper Studio. Ink: Colorbox, Stickles.

father's day

I was working in my craft room on Saturday and my son asked if could make his dad a card for Father's Day. How could I say no?! I had punched out a few some scalloped circles for a project I was starting and he decided to use those. This is his creation...

happy things...

I was in a major stamping mood last weekend, and this is another of the cards I came up with at the request of my son. He was looking at my stamps and picked out the ice cream stamp! When I finished it, he carried it around all day...so sweet! I picked up a new camera so excuse the incorrect date!

Stamps & Paper: A muse. Ink: Colorbox & Tombow.

The worst two days ever...

Ugh...I thought I was an independent girl. Thought I could handle things on my own but I was wrong way wrong. Apparently when I got married I forgot all my single girl skills. Just to give you a reference point, I don't remember the last time I even pumped my own gas.

Long story short, there's a big rash of 'vandals' in my town breaking car windows and slashing tires. I was lucky enough to have my window broken and my husband out of town. Fast forward to a day and half of arguing with my insurance company over glass in the car, a flat tire, glass filed car seat, a breakdown at the Honda dealership and way too much money spent, the damage was fixed. I'm exhausted!!

As you wish...

There's a new challenge over at the AP Blog and this one got me thinking. I could not come up with an idea so I thought I would keep it simple and focus on the colors...red, shades of blue and white. I remembered reading in a magazine this week a quick article about 'The Princess Bride' and it listed some of the most used movie lines. I laughed the hardest when I read 'Have fun storming the castle' so I went to look for my castle stamp. The hardest part of this card was stamping the movie quote. It took a few tries and it still came out a bit crooked but what can you do. I leave you with this...INCONCEIVABLE.

Stamps: A muse. Paper: A muse. Ink: Colorbox & Tombow & Stickles

Bday Card

So this is the card after I came up with after I finished the margarita card. A bit more appropriate I think! I cut out the cake and mounted it on 3-D glue dots. Love it when cards pop off the page. I seem to have some creativity back...I'm excited!

Stamps: Amuse. Paper: Amuse. Ink : Colorbox, stickles

I crack myself up...

I was supposed to be working on a birthday card but I let my mind wander and ended up with this card. Needless to say it was not given out but it made me laugh...

Stamps: Amuse, Stampin Up. Paper: Amuse. Ink: Colorbox

While I was waiting...

For my creative juices to kick in I painted a cool mural on the wall of my craft room. It's not perfect by any means and it was pretty rough to do but I think it turned out okay. I used my laptop skin as the inspiration for the mural. I used a projector to trace the image onto the wall and traced away. The hardest part was realigning the chandelier each time I had to move the projector. I had practiced initially by painting 'Diego' the animal rescuer on the wall for my son and I think that one turned a bit better. Regardless I'm happy with, try not to stare at the lines not really lining up! Also I used Stickes on the tops of the candles to simulate a glow...love those things!

A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA 08 Challenge 1 - Take 2

I committed myself to working on another card tonight and came up with this...

For some reason I think I've seen a layout that is similar so my apologies in advance! The challenge for this round is to use the colors, purple, blue and brown on the card. I seem to be taking the easy way out by using hints of blue as opposed to blue paper in the card. I'm getting adventurous so I might try blue paper later in the week.

Stamps: Amuse, Studio G. Ribbon: Amuse

A-MUSE-A-PALOOZA 08 Challenge 1

Here's hoping that Amuseapalooza helps me get my groove back, here's my first challenge card!

Stamps: Amuse, Studio G. Ink: Colorbox

Where does time go?

It's been super crazy the last few weeks. I was preparing for a week long business trip, mother's day and a birthday. It was also really stressful for me since it was the first time I was going to be away from my son. I can't complain, the class was in Las Vegas and I got some alone time with my husband! The first night we went to see the Phantom of the Opera and I loved it. It was really beautiful and I have become obsessed with the soundtrack since that night. The rest of the week went by in a blur, late nights and early mornings for class. I couldn't wait to get home, I missed my little one so much.

I dragged my sister out at midnight on Thursday night to see 'Sex in the City'. I had mixed feelings about the way the movie went but it was funny. Four hours of sleep is not a good way to start any work day.

I'm still having a hard time trying to get creative, we've spent most of the last few weeks poolside. I'm hoping something strikes me soon....

They really are listening...

I made a get well card for my sister this past weekend, it seemed to be out of my comfort zone with the colors but I think it came out okay. When I showed the card to my Mom she noticed the embossing on the flowers and thought that I had missed the bottom of the card. I explained to her that I bought the paper that way and there was no embossing for me to do. So when my sister opens the envelope she says the exact same thing. Man, these chicks are really listening when I talk about embossing and scalloped edges...love ya!

Stamp: Bella, Amuse Art Stamps. Ink: Colorbox, Prismacolor Markers. Stickles.

Rubber Romance

I came across this company, Rubber Romance, a while back and really liked their stamps. This was the first time I got to play with them and I was really pleased with the outcome. Who doesn't love a girl with tons o' sparkly?

Stamps: Rubber Romance. Ink: Colorbox, Prismacolor Markers

A Failed Experiment

I'm still the newest of stampers so I wanted to play with a stamp I had just ordered from Amuse. I loved the idea of taking two stamps and seeing how I can get one new image. So during nap time this weekend I was able to play with the new tutu stamp. Don't get me wrong when Amuse released the tutu they also released the ballerina. I wanted to see if I could get my own ballerina. So first I went of Hula Girl and found that her frame was too thin. Next I went for one of my personal favorites, the mermaid. She almost worked perfect but she doesn't have any legs, then I tried to draw new legs on her....needless to say it did not work. I will continue to to play but here's what I've got so far.

Bonus Round _Weekend

This is the most stamping I've done in eight months or so. By the time I got to the bonus card my brain was mush, hence a super plain card. The challenge was to create a card that was inspired by 'weekends'. I choose the theme of this card because I regularly drag my husband to craft/stamping places. I wish there was a sentiment that said 'One more stop' I think that would have captured what I was going for. Then I thought about colors and I thought I would embrace the black and white theme of the previous challenge. It works for me!

This was a lot of fun I hope this will set me on the path back to the creative side of my brain!

Images: Amuse. Ink: Colorbox

Saturday Night Fever

This challenge was about using black and white only on the card. I had a sentiment (Save the Date) to use but ran out of space on the card. It's hard to edit myself sometimes but I think it worked in my favor this time.

Images & Card: Amuse. Ink: Colorbox. Brads: Making Memories

Do the Hustle

This was a sketch challenge which I've done before. It was nice to not think about a layout and focus on the colors. I kept it pretty simple with the blue and yellow...can't go wrong there. I also masked the 'Super Dad' stamp to put the focus on the 'super' part.

Images: Amuse. Punches: Marvy. Ink: Colorbox.